Mrs. Thompson's Schadenfreude

Dr. Wu pounded the table, smoke rising: "We just sold the medicinal herbs a few days ago, why do we need to go into town again?"

Cynthia Wu brushed her hair aside: "Su Meixiang came looking for me, said she wanted to go into town for some fun and asked me to keep her company. I thought there was nothing much to do at home, so I agreed to go with her."

Zhang Mu frowned slightly: "Cynthia, you and Su Meixiang aren't usually that close. Why did she suddenly seek you out?"

Cynthia Wu was only thinking about seeing Master Liu Hui in town tomorrow and didn't give it much thought. She replied offhandedly, "Maybe her younger sister, Su Lanxiang, is too young to accompany her, and she doesn't have many friends in the village."

After speaking, Cynthia Wu happily returned to her room, pondering what outfit to wear tomorrow.

"Dr. Wu, I’ll head out first." Zhang Mu stood up, glanced toward Cynthia Wu’s room as she left, but only saw the tightly closed door, and quietly departed.

Evans Residence.

Lily Evans sat at the table, calculating her property holdings. Most of the houses she bought were in prime locations and were well renovated, so more than half were already rented out. Lily wasn’t planning to evict those tenants for now, preferring to let them stay at the original rent. Although the rental income wasn’t much, every little bit helped—it was better than leaving the houses vacant.

There were still a few houses with older renovations, so Lily planned to quickly find someone to fix them up while the Phoenix Academy was still under construction. Once the academy opened, she could rent them out at a premium.

"Lily, don’t stare at those numbers for too long, you’ll strain your eyes." Margaret Evans smiled and handed Lily a bowl of sugar water. "Where’s Lucky?"

Lily stretched: "Lucky went to the river to fetch water."

Just then, Lucky came walking back from the river, carrying two buckets of water, with Mrs. Thompson trailing behind.

Mrs. Thompson wore a look of schadenfreude: "Lucky, didn’t your family strike it rich? Why are you still fetching water yourself? Haven’t you hired any servants yet?"

Lucky found Mrs. Thompson extremely annoying and walked ahead without responding.

Mrs. Thompson covered her mouth, snickering as she followed behind, her voice dripping with schadenfreude: "Lucky, I've told you a hundred times to hold onto your money, but you never listen! Now look at you—your wife spent it all buying houses in that godforsaken place. If you'd listened to me, you'd be living in a big house, eating well every day! You should go home and hang that spendthrift wife of yours up and give her a good beating—then she'll learn to behave. Wives need a firm hand, or they'll run wild. You need to show her who's boss, or she'll keep frittering away your silver!"

Mrs. Thompson kept up her energetic rant, oblivious to Lucky's silence, her voice growing louder as she followed him, thoroughly enjoying herself.

She was so caught up in her own excitement that she didn't notice her husband, Zhang Zhuzi, trailing behind her with a face like thunder.

Mrs. Thompson eyed Lucky's strong build and handsome face, sighing to herself—such a fine young man, why couldn't he be her husband? Unable to hold back, she said, "Lucky, listen to me: a man can't let a woman walk all over him. What's so special about Cynthia Wu anyway? She married you, so she should serve you well! Look around—no other woman in the village controls her husband like yours does. You're strong as an ox and good-looking too. If you divorced Cynthia, girls would be lining up for you! Why can't you see that? If I were ten years younger, I'd..."

"You'd what?" A cold voice suddenly interrupted from behind.

Mrs. Thompson blurted out, "I'd marry a handsome, strong young man!"

As soon as she finished, Mrs. Thompson froze—why did that voice sound so familiar...?